Overcoming barriers to having high quality arts activities is the primary incentive for this grant. Our primary goal is to give greater opportunity to middle school access to art, particularly as it relates to their environment. Our project shows a way for artists, teachers and organizations to come together the help our children become more engaged, creative leaders in the society that will become theirs. We can bring together organizational elements that would normally not connect in their own pursuit of goals. This approach benefits both the Bonanza Education Center and the Big Stone Arts Council to effectively carry out their missions while instilling the high quality arts and environmental awareness into the community and public life in our region. In relation to the project goals, we will be collecting data, both numerically and anecdotally to measure the connectivity and outcomes with samplings of people served. A set of *exit questions* is being designed as documentation for each area of concern: The Person (project youth and adults and their beneficiaries); i.e. Meaning, feelings, engagement, support, new learning, growth, and skills. The Place; i.e. Physical needs, interests, aesthetics, hospitality served. The Project Purpose; i.e. Benefit to participating organizations and support groups. The Process; i.e. Daily content, roles of organizers, facilitators' volunteers, and activities. The Product; i.e. Creative work done by students and impact on audiences. The post-Project; i.e. Continued interaction, replication and continued education.

Measurable Outcome(s)

Post-test responses showed that half of respondents to our survey named art-related activities as their favorite thing. We included underserved youth and students from diverse cultural backgrounds. Field trips and expert presentations, plus afternoon “studio time” where students could participate in a variety of individual or group activities, resulted in these art-related outcomes: Impromptu play written and performed on second day of camp by participants; Photographs taken by campers; Study of music composition, singing. and public performance under the tutelage of veteran musician (10-year old soloist and 5 other campers gave public performances); Participation in GIS mapmaking by “pinning” artfully with needle and colored thread locations in Big Stone County of personal and ecological significance gathered interactively; Art in nature — creating pictures in sand and sculptures in rocks and twigs with discussion about how art can be transient and non-intrusive; Paper-making; creating handmade paper of different colors and textures using native and invasive plants of the area; Personal journaling and sketching that reflected on their water journey experiences; Artifacts of the project displayed at the Bonanza Education during the Meander Art Crawl.